Consultancy and research

Over half (55%) of mobile searches that resulted in a conversion happened in less than an hour, according to new research from Nielsen and Google.

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The study found that although most mobile searches are occurring in the home (68%) or at work (9%), most mobile searchers are looking for immediate gratification rather than long term research.

As part of the research, 416 participants agreed to log their mobile searches over two weeks with a smartphone diary app. In total 6,303 searches were logged during the study. In addition, Nielsen did an exit interview with respondents, of which 323 participated.

“We followed up to ask them what actions resulted from those searches, helping us draw more precise, measurable connections between mobile searches and the conversions that they drive online and offline,” wrote Ben Chung, product marketing manager of mobile ads at Google AdWords.”We also found that three of four mobile searches trigger additional actions.

“These range from open-ended actions like additional research (36%) or a website visit (25%), to more concrete conversions like a store visit (17%), a purchase (17%), or a phone call (7%), added Chung.

The study also found that 55% of conversions from mobile searches happen within an hour of the original search. Of all mobile searches that were analysed, arts & entertainment was the most popular (15%), followed by news (12%), general knowledge (10%), shopping (7%) and food (7%) in the top five.

According to the study, the most popular time for mobile searches was between 8pm and midnight (22%), followed by 3-6pm (19%), 6-8pm (18%), noon-3pm (17%), 9am-noon (13%), and the remainder being early in the morning.